Cambridge, University Library, MS Ii.1.19
Moses Maimonides, Dux neutrorum; William of Auvergne, De causis cur deus homo; and writings by Robert Grosseteste
Contents
Language(s): Latin
Part 2, f. 58r; Part 3, f. 110r. Text begins without the dedicatory letter and ends imperfectly without the 613 precepts (Di Segni, p. 65*). Chapter numbers in Arabic numerals added by several hands, including the text scribe, in a single sequence (not restarting at the beginnings of Parts 2 or 3. Note on missing chapters in the top margin, written by an 16th-century hand, 'Babyngton' (see Provenance): 'Desunt duo capita finalia que in R Moyse exenso per Ascentium habetur . 1 . de Mandatis affirmatiuis . 2 . de Negatiuis'.
Provision of a canonry of Lincoln to Frederic de Lavania.
Grosseteste's reply to the previous epistle. His name added to the opening rubric by a 15th-century hand.
Added by a later hand. Attributed to Grosseteste in the closing rubric.
Physical Description
20th-century foliation
[i-ii] + 1-214
Numbering in pencil in the upper right-hand corner of the recto side of each leaf, written by an unidentified hand.
Collation
- Quires 1-1712 (ff. 1-204)
- Quire 1812-2 (ff. 205-214: 11th-12th leaves excised)
Leaf signatures mostly cropped, those remaining in various forms, as follows: Quires 1-2, 'a' and 'b 1-6 et non post' (in the middle of the bottom margin); Quire 3, 'i-vi a'; Quires 15-16, 'i-vi d' and 'b'; Quire 17, 'i-vi'.
Catchwords.Layout
165-175 × 120 mm. Ruled in leadpoint, frame only; line ruling added for text on ff. 211v-212r. Two columns, 36-40 lines to the page (41-43 for text added on ff. 209v-212r), written below top line.
Hand(s)
Written in Anglicana formata, perhaps by a single hand. Two further hands added text in the same script (ff. 209v-211r and 211v-212r). All employ a larger module version as a display script. The handwriting of the scribe of ff. 209v-211r shows little evidence of influence by Secretary script, except for the adoption of single-compartment a (with intermittent reversions to the two-compartment form). The scribe following on ff. 211v-212r executes a compressed version of the script, including archaic features such as forked ascenders.
Decoration
Six-line geometric initial in red and blue, with marginal flourishing in red (f. 1r).
Two- to eight-line initials in red or blue, with contrasting infill and marginal flourishing in blue or red: in Quires 1-2, red initials flourished in pink (rather than the usual blue), and all with somewhat more elaborate flourishing than in the initials that follow, suggesting execution in two campaigns. For the added texts (ff. 209v-211r and 211v-212r), two- to three-line initials in red or blue, with contrasting infill and marginal flourishing in blue or red, each evidently executed as part of separate scribal stints.
Paraph marks in red or blue.
Additions
Collation formula by the hand of H.L. Pink (rear pastedown).
Binding
17th-century binding, dark brown leather over pasteboards, blind-tooled frame with fleurons at the internal corners. Rebacked by J.P. Gray and Son, 1956 (front pastedown).
History
Provenance and Acquisition
'Welle': apparent ownership inscription, by a hand of the second half of the 14th or first half of the 15th century (f. 1r, top margin) (cf. Emden, BRUO, i, p. 72).
'IHC - Maria - ora - Anna - et Iohannes - [?]' (f. 208v), 'Ihesus - Maria - Anna - [?]' (f. 209v) and notes on
these pages accompanying Grosseteste's letter to Innocent IV, all written in a current
script by Thomas Gascoigne (1403-1458), theologian and Chancellor of Oxford 1444 and
1445.
A possible ?ownership inscription, medieval, now erased (f. 1r, bottom margin).
'Babyngton 1562': ownership inscription of Francis Babington (d. 1569?), vice-chancellor of Oxford 1560-62 (f. 214v). The same Babyngton added a note to f. 1r ('Babington lectori . S . Extat hic liber impressus a judaeo Badio Ascentio auctior multo et emendatior . deest namque hic proemium et desunt in fine duo postrema capita') and another on f. 183v concerning the lack of text at the end of the Dux neautrorum. Di Segni suggests other annotations may also be Babington's hand (see ff. 48r, 102r, 142v-143r, 144r-145r). Babington's name is found in several other manuscripts:
- Aberystwyth, National Library of Wales, Peniarth MS 382 (ff. 1r, 77v)
- Cambridge, University Library, MS Add. 6683 (f. 1r, overwritten)
- London, British Library, Harley MS 647 (f. 2v)
- Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Urb. lat. 694 (f. 1r - largely erased)
In the University Library by 1600, when it was recorded as no. 130 in the Ecloga Oxonio-Cantabrigiensis by Thomas James (1600). Probably one of the manuscripts donated or
bequeathed by
Andrew Perne (?1519-1589)
, Vice-Chancellor and Master of Peterhouse.
Additional Information
Record Sources
Availability
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Bibliography
-
Roberti Grosseteste episcopi quondam Lincolniensis epistolæ Rerum Britannicarum medii
aevi scriptores, (London, Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts, 1861)
Die Philosophischen Werke des Robert Grosseteste, Bischofs von Lincoln: zum Erstenmal
Vollständig
in kritischer Ausgabe Beiträge zur Geschichte der Philosophie des Mittelalters, Texte
und Untersuchungen ; Bd 9, Baur, Ludwig (Münster i. W, Aschendorffsche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1912)
The writings of Robert Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln 1235-1253, Harrison Thomson, Samuel (London, Cambridge University Press, 1940)
Literargeschichtliches zum lateinischen Moses Maimonides Recherches de Théologie Ancienne
et Médiévale, Kluxen, Wolfgang (21, 23-50, 1954)
Robert Grosseteste and the pastoral care Medieval and Renaissance Studies. Proceedings
of the Southeastern Institute of Medieval and
Renaissance Studies, Summer 1976 Medieval and Renaissance Series, Boyle, Leonard E. (Durham, NC, 3-51, Duke University Press, 1979)
Robert Grosseteste and the pastoral care Pastoral Care, Clerical Education and Canon
Law, 1200-1400 Variorum Collected Studies Series, Boyle, Leonard E. (3-51, 1981)
The <hi rend="italics">De dotibus</hi> of Robert Grosseteste Mediaeval Studies, Goering, Joseph (44, 1982, 83-109, 1982)
List of manuscripts and editions Autour de Guillaume d'Auvergne (+1249) Bibliothèque
d'histoire culturelle du Moyen Age, Ottman, Jennifer R. (Turnhout, Belgium, 375-399, Brepols, 2005)
Thomas Gascoigne, libraries and scholarship Cambridge Bibliographical Society Monographs, Ball, R. M. (Cambridge, Bibliographical Society, 2006)
Moses Maimonides, <hi rend="italics">Dux neutrorum vel dubiorum</hi> Recherches de
théologie et philosophie médiévales. Bibliotheca, (Leuven, Peeters, 2019)
Funding of Cataloguing
National Library of Israel (digitisation)
Digital Images
Abbreviations
View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.
